Research and remote peoples

The New York Timesreports on the interaction between isolated communities and the researchers which visit them. Remote peoples are often involved in psychology, anthropology and medical science research, although the NYT article focuses on how the researchers are regarded by their participants.

Another member of the tiny and reclusive Ariaal tribe, Leketon Lenarendile, scanned a handful of pictures laid before him by a researcher whose unstated goal was to gauge whether his body image had been influenced by outside media. “The girls like the ones like this,” he said, repeating the exercise later and pointing to a rather slender man much like himself. “I don’t know why they were asking me that,” he said.